WordPress 5.0.2 Released with Performance Gains of 330% for Block-Heavy Posts

WordPress 5.0.2, the of first of two rapid releases following 5.0, is now available. Sites with automatic background updates enabled should already be on the latest version.

This release addresses performance issues, one of the chief complaints for users who have adopted the block editor. It brings 45 improvements to the editor, with 14 of those related to performance and 31 bug fixes. According to Gary Pendergast, “the cumulated performance gains make it 330% faster for a post with 200 blocks.”

This maintenance release also fixes 17 editor-related bugs in the default WordPress themes as well as internationalization issues related to script loading.

Overall, 5.0.2 updates have gone smoothly, with the exception of a few conflicts with a handful of plugins. Most notably, WooCommerce store administrators found that the Orders tab had disappeared after their sites updated. WooCommerce has fixed the issue in a quick patch release (version 3.5.3) that was pushed out this morning.

NextGEN Gallery creator Erick Danzer also reported a minor issue with the Classic block that prevents users from editing galleries via the placeholder the plugin had added. A fix for that issue should be forthcoming in an update to the plugin.

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Hm. Just tried to publish a post about version 5, and my dislike of the new block editor, written with the new block editor. “Publishing failed” – is WordPress somehow stamping out dissenting views on self-hosted sites? 😳 Immediately switched back to Classic, and was able to add tags as well.